I tried the first recipe submitted for the contest and it was really good. Tonight I'm trying another one. Keep them coming!
I went to a market where they have tons of spice shops. I took a chart of spices which had both the English and Hindi names for them. I started a conversation with a spice seller. I got a great lesson on spices and Hindi. I found out I can get just about any spice you can imagine or at least a sufficient substitute.
I did find out that I can get couscous. In the summer I can get avacados. I'll have to wait for them.
02 April 2009
A Day That Worked...
I have a list of things that I need to get done and I’ve slowly been checking them off my list. It’s been the status quo for most days never to go right and nothing much gets accomplished. It’s taken me about 3 weeks to get about 5 things done. There are still a few more things left to do.
Yesterday (April Fools' Day of all days) everything just worked out and I got things done. I had planned on doing other things on my list and was heading out the door when my roommate arrived back home from a morning meeting. She said that if I had time she could show me where I could buy the MP3 player with voice recorder I needed for my new language program. I quickly changed my plans and we headed to Nehru Place.
Nehru Place is like electronics central here. If you need anything electronic that’s the place to go. I had been there on my own and went to multiple places to see if they had an MP3 Player with voice recorder but never found one. If you can imagine a large mall and all the stores sell electronics but it’s not clear which shop sells what…that’s Nehru Place. My roommate took me to 3 different shops. One didn’t have it. The other two did! The one wanted a thousand more rupees for theirs. It was an easy decision. I was able to buy an 8GB MP3 Player with voice recorder for about $70. Not too bad. While we were there we went to the print shop which gives good deals if you need to print a large job. I have been needing to print out some material for my language learning projects but hadn’t found a printer that was reasonable in price. That was two things off my list in one day.
After that we stopped in and bought some nice fresh bread and then parted ways. I needed to grab a quick bite to eat and head to another market. I went to Khan Market. It’s your local market with a bit of everything. I usually go there for their cafes, butcher, fruit and veggies, and some more western type items such as toilet paper. Yesterday I needed meat for dinner. While I was there I bought some flowers. Beautiful!
I went home and made dinner. It turned out great. It’s the best success I’ve had in cooking since I’ve been here. All the credit goes to my friend Melanie who submitted a recipe for the contest. The rest of you have to be really good to beat her recipe. It was wonderful and my roommate really enjoyed it. Thanks Mel! I’ll be sharing all the recipes I try when I announce the winner on Memorial Day. Keep sending those recipes in. Tonight I'm making my friend Alisha's chicken and lychees.
In the process of traveling to and fro yesterday I had fair auto drivers who even used the meter! It turned out to be a very good day. I almost forgot. I had my first lesson with my new language helper.
With the help of a friend, I arranged it so that I went to the language helper’s house. That way I didn’t have to depend on her to show up. It was great. I learned so much. It was encouraging. It was also a great cultural experience. They live in the busty near my neighborhood. Let me try to explain what a busty is like.
Another word for busty is slum. The one my language helper lives in isn’t the extreme slum where the houses are made of whatever you can find. It is more established and was originally a village that the city grew up around. It's a maze of twisting alley ways that make finding the house an adventure in itself.
My language lives in a one room building with a concrete slab and plywood walls. They have a light and a small ceiling fan. They don’t have any running water. She lives in this one room with her 2 brothers, mother, and grandmother. It’s about a 15 minute walk and sits just off the freeway behind the crematorium across the nulla (big open drainage ditch).
Everything went really well. Her aunti and grandmother were there and half-way through our lesson one of her brothers arrived. He was a big help (his English is much better). Our lesson ended with the call to prayer. It’s a neighborhood where I need to wear a full salwar suit and cover my head. It’s a great place to learn language and culture. I get to help this family out both financially and honoring them by learning from them.
I had my first really good day.
Yesterday (April Fools' Day of all days) everything just worked out and I got things done. I had planned on doing other things on my list and was heading out the door when my roommate arrived back home from a morning meeting. She said that if I had time she could show me where I could buy the MP3 player with voice recorder I needed for my new language program. I quickly changed my plans and we headed to Nehru Place.
Nehru Place is like electronics central here. If you need anything electronic that’s the place to go. I had been there on my own and went to multiple places to see if they had an MP3 Player with voice recorder but never found one. If you can imagine a large mall and all the stores sell electronics but it’s not clear which shop sells what…that’s Nehru Place. My roommate took me to 3 different shops. One didn’t have it. The other two did! The one wanted a thousand more rupees for theirs. It was an easy decision. I was able to buy an 8GB MP3 Player with voice recorder for about $70. Not too bad. While we were there we went to the print shop which gives good deals if you need to print a large job. I have been needing to print out some material for my language learning projects but hadn’t found a printer that was reasonable in price. That was two things off my list in one day.
After that we stopped in and bought some nice fresh bread and then parted ways. I needed to grab a quick bite to eat and head to another market. I went to Khan Market. It’s your local market with a bit of everything. I usually go there for their cafes, butcher, fruit and veggies, and some more western type items such as toilet paper. Yesterday I needed meat for dinner. While I was there I bought some flowers. Beautiful!
I went home and made dinner. It turned out great. It’s the best success I’ve had in cooking since I’ve been here. All the credit goes to my friend Melanie who submitted a recipe for the contest. The rest of you have to be really good to beat her recipe. It was wonderful and my roommate really enjoyed it. Thanks Mel! I’ll be sharing all the recipes I try when I announce the winner on Memorial Day. Keep sending those recipes in. Tonight I'm making my friend Alisha's chicken and lychees.
In the process of traveling to and fro yesterday I had fair auto drivers who even used the meter! It turned out to be a very good day. I almost forgot. I had my first lesson with my new language helper.
With the help of a friend, I arranged it so that I went to the language helper’s house. That way I didn’t have to depend on her to show up. It was great. I learned so much. It was encouraging. It was also a great cultural experience. They live in the busty near my neighborhood. Let me try to explain what a busty is like.
Another word for busty is slum. The one my language helper lives in isn’t the extreme slum where the houses are made of whatever you can find. It is more established and was originally a village that the city grew up around. It's a maze of twisting alley ways that make finding the house an adventure in itself.
My language lives in a one room building with a concrete slab and plywood walls. They have a light and a small ceiling fan. They don’t have any running water. She lives in this one room with her 2 brothers, mother, and grandmother. It’s about a 15 minute walk and sits just off the freeway behind the crematorium across the nulla (big open drainage ditch).
Everything went really well. Her aunti and grandmother were there and half-way through our lesson one of her brothers arrived. He was a big help (his English is much better). Our lesson ended with the call to prayer. It’s a neighborhood where I need to wear a full salwar suit and cover my head. It’s a great place to learn language and culture. I get to help this family out both financially and honoring them by learning from them.
I had my first really good day.
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